Belgain Blonde / Bavarian Amber

I have not thought of cute names for these two yet. Brewday went quite well -- it was the first time I used my new keggle, so it was also the first time I was able to brew a full ten gallons.

Malt and other Fermentables:

12 lbs Pilsener Malt
10 lbs Munich Malt
1 lb CaraPils Dextrine Malt
1 lb Piloncillo (in Blonde)

Hops:

2 oz Sterling (7%AA) -- 60 minutes
1 oz Mount Hood (6%AA) -- 20 minutes
1 oz Mount Hood (6%AA) -- 15 minutes (with two Whirlfloc tabs)

Bavarian Amber -- Wyeast Bavarian Lager Yeast
Belgian Blonde -- Wyeast Ardennes Yeast

What follows is what I wrote while I was brewing:

13 gallons to get 12 with 1 boiling off.
5.5 in each carboy = 11
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152 degrees after 15min -- (set tun loss lower than .3 next time)
added a few ice cubes and that brought the temp down a few degrees. Left lid open for a little while and got it close to 147.
---------------
Only mashed for 60 minutes oops! Thought about shutting run-off down for a few minutes, but then reconsidered because the sparge water was cooling.
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Added two whirlfloc.
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Will there be a pronounced caramel flavor? I boiled that piloncillo pretty good (in wort)

Reflections on Brewday
Things went rather well for having a pretty new set-up. I got a little retarded for a minute, and only mashed for 60 minutes. We will see if that caused any issues. More wort boiled off than I planned, but there was still the right amount for the two carboys. My biggest challenge was chilling that much wort, and i only got it down around 100 degrees before bringing it in the house. I figured the chest freezer will chill the lager wort down quicker, and I will be able to pitch the Belgian yeast around 85 degrees if I need to. Next time I will have a new lager chiller and my current one will be a pre-chiller. I will measure gravities once the wort cools down to pitching temperature.
___________________

Belgian Blond Notes:
7.13.09 -- Pitched yeast after wort cooled close to room temperature (80 degrees, and holding pretty steady)

Bavarian Amber Notes:
7.13.09 -- Pitched yeast after wort sat in the chest cooler for about 24 hours.

Rustic Farmhouse Ale 2009

this recipe is for 7 gallons since this will be the first time I am using my keggle. There may be more evaporation, and I want to be sure I have at least 5.5 gallons to put in the fermenter.

Malt and Adjuncts:

10.5 lbs Pilsneer Malt

1.5lb Munich I

1.5lb Rye Malt

2lbs Wheat Malt

1lb Piloncillo in Boil

Hops:

1.5oz Sterling (7%AA) -- 60 minutes

1oz Mt. Hood (6%AA) -- 20 minutes

1oz East Kent Goldings (5.6%AA) -- ten minutes

IBUS should be around 42

Pre-brewday notes:

-Use the strike water calculator on Promash so you do not have to prime the tun with boiling water. This should save at least an hour.

-Same recipe as last one with minor hop adjustments (Sterling instead of Saaz / Boil 60 minutes instead of 90).

7.2.09 -- Decided to go a different direction. Thinking of a split batch Amber Lager / Belgian Amber.

Bavarian Lager + Belgian Strong Golden Ale

Bavarian Lager = O.G. = 1.059
18 IBU

Strong Golden Ale = O.G. = 1.077
33.2 IBU*

The chest cooler is empty, so I have to get on that. I thought I would do the same thing I did when I brewed the Bohunk + Extra Challenger, which was to run off ten gallons of wort and then boil them separately. I am also going for a lower gravity beer for the lager this time (around 1.o54) instead of the typical 1.066 I have made of late. This should make it more sessionable, but also make it easier to add cane sugar to the smaller batch to make Strong Golden Ale. If the first gravity would have been too high, adding two pounds of cane sugar (around 20%) would have been a little much.

Fermentables:

19.5 Lbs Pilsener Malt
2lbs Cane Sugar (SGA in boil)

Hops:
Bavarian:
.5 oz Sterlinf (7%AA) -- 60 min
.5 oz Mt Hood (6%AA) -- 15 min

Bavarian Lager Yeast (Wyeast)

Belgian Strong Golden Ale:
1 oz Willamette (4%AA) -- 60 minutes
.5 oz Sterling (7%AA) -- 15 minutes

Belgian Strong Yeast (Wyeast)


Brewday went off pretty well with the exception of the SGA coming in at 1.103 to start. After adding an additional gallon of water, it was back to 1.077, which is close to what I wanted. It seems as though I just added back a gallon of water that got boiled off. I calculated the recipe at 4 gallons, so everything may be as planned, just in an unconventional way. *IBUs may be a little off for this reason, but then again, maybe not.

I suppose it should also be noted that my mash temp was a little higher than I intended. This batch mashed between 150-154, and I was shooting for around 145. This may make the beer a little sweeter, and may result in the Strong Golden Ale to be called a Tripel.

Bavarian Lager Notes:
5.26.09 -- Gravity measured 1.032 which is not low enough to start a diacetyl rest. We are leaving to go to the beach for a week on Saturday. Had the following discussion on Beer Advocate. Since I pitched well over three quarts of fresh starter, I am not going to worry much about diacetyl. I will do a rest when I get home -- just in case, and then lager as normal.
6.6.09 -- Gravity measures 1.019. I turned up the temperature to around 60, and I hope I can get a few more points out of it. I am sure I can since it is only 68% attenuated at this point.
6.9.09 -- Racked into secondary and placed in the chest freezer. Gravity was down to 1.015, which is 75% attenuated and gives the beer an ABV of 5.8%
6.30.09 -- Kegged
7.5.09 -- This beer is light and refreshing. Bavarian yeast is interesting compared to the Urquell that I have used so much in the past. I know I say it all the time, but I know this one will not last long at all. I know I will do something like this again, but I may play with the hop profile a little. I may be getting a little tired of Sterling and Mt. Hood.

Strong Golden Ale Notes:
6.6.09 -- Gravity reads 1.007, which is surprising. This will make the ABV a little above 9.
6.9.09 -- Racked into three gallon carboy and put in chest freezer. Dropping the temp over the course of the next couple days on the way to 34 degrees.
6.30.09 -- Primed to carbonate at 4 volumes and bottled. I am glad I saved so many thick bottles.

Black Belgian Ale

Target Gravity = 1.066

Original Gravity = 1.072

36 IBU

Final Gravity = 1.014

81% Attenuated

7.6% ABV

This is going to be my entry in the Copper Creek Creative Libation Contest, and the intent is to make a black trippel with a tad of sweetness coming from a pound of medium crystal. The contest calls for a "bent beer" that does not fit easily in a traditional category. I think the unorthadoxy here will mostly be visual -- I am trying to keep it subtle since I think many of the other competitors will go over the top with their entries which could lead to less drinkable beers. We'll see.

View Promash Page Here

4.6.09 -- Gravity measured 1.014, which was around 80% attenuated. I racked the beer into a keg so that I could condition it in the chest freezer at 34 degrees. The beer is not as black as I wanted it to be, and I am afraid that I have done nothing more than make a sort of Dubbel with the crystal malt addition taking the place of the candi sugar that would normally be there.

4.24.09 -- I took the keg out of the cooler and hooked it up to the gas. I turned the pressure way up (around 23psi) to get major carbonation going. A couple days later, this beer was about ready. The first few glasses had me worried since it tasted a little like rotten garbage, but after the yeast was cleared from the bottom of the keg, the Chimay yeast gave off its signature dark cherry notes. I am still unsure if this recipe is "bent" enough for the contest since it tastes an awful lot like a typical dubbel. I cannot complain though. This beer is light bodied, strong, and flavorful.
5.20.09 -- I turned in one of the five bottles of Black Belgian Ale I filled on 5.15.09 for submission into the contest.

5.24.09 -- Found out a couple days ago that my beer did not make it to the second round. Oh, well. I still like it.
5.29.09 -- got the notes back from whoever judged my beer. It seems as though they did not even taste it. They said it was "phenolic" and stopped there. I am very dissapointed that they did not give it any more time than that. This beer with this yeast is meant to be phenolic, though I would admit the phenols in this beer are a little more pronounced than they should be. I do not think it was anything to prevent someone from going further than just smelling it.

Good Head Red 2009

Target Gravity = 1.063

O.G. = 1.060
37 IBUs
View the Recipe Here

Good Head Red was going to be the house beer for a while, but then I gave it a rest. That is until I unearthed a bottle of "ass" the other day and it was just lovely. Ass, you might ask. Well, that is the last bits from the bottling bucket that I would squeeze out even though it was full of spent hops and other crud. These bottles usually disappear for years. This particular one was from my first all grain batch. The recipe was a little different than the one here, but the idea is the same.

This one is made mostly from ingredients I have already: Sterling, Mt. Hood, and Willamette hops, and I will be pouring the wort on top of the yeast cake from Extra Challenger Extra Pale.

3.10.09 -- First outdoor brew day. Everything went fine with a few minor instances of trying to do too many things at once. The temperature got close to 80 upstairs yesterday, so I brought the carboy down. This will be the last non-Belgian beer to ferment upstairs until the weather cools off in the fall.
3.20.09 -- Measured gravity = 1.023.

3.29.09 -- Still measuring 1.023, which is confusing me. The temp of this beer should not have dipped too low since I had it mostly submerged in water with the aquarium heater. I will have to add some dry yeast to see if it will start back up. Maybe the yeast was wore out? This would be the third generation.

4.6.09 -- Gravity was down to 1.018. This was without adding dry yeast. All I did was raise the temperature a few degrees and made sure there was as much water surrounding the carboy as possible. The sample tasted very nice already, so I think I am going to skip the dry hop addition. It may be a while before this one gets drunk since it is behind three other beers already.

4.25.09 -- Kegged the beer to get it out of the attic since it is getting hot. Right now I am working to keep this keg pressurized, but am not carbonating it yet. I will probably charge this up more once the other two beers are nice and gassed (Black Belgian Ale and Oily Bohunk)
5.13.09 -- Perhaps not my best work, but still a fine beer. I think Ringwood Ale yeast needs a bit more aggressive hop profile to even out the fruity character it adds. Also, I am thinking the flavor addition of Willamette should be reserved for darker beers, or those with a more caramel flavor. Don't get me wrong, this beer is nice and drinkable, even though I have criticisms. I would give it a solid "B". The malt profile, I like -- and it is very similar to the one I used for my last version of Yippie I.P.A. I think this profile will show up more later. The next time I make this, I will likely use American Ale yeast, or something else a little more modest. I will also use a more continental hop for the flavor addition.

Bohunk + Extra Challenger Extra Pale

This was originally going to be a parti-gyle batch, but I decided running ten gallons off into a big tub, and then separating them. They will be the same gravity that way. The Bohunk batch will be six gallons (pre-boil), and the Extra Challenger Extra Pale will be four -- for a total of ten.

I wanted to make the second beer to use the Challenger hops I have wasting away in my freezer. Since I will be using all of the four ounces I still have, the Extra Challenger Extra Pale is going to be quite the hopster.

Target Gravity for both beers:
1.066
O.G = 1.064

The Malts:
20 lbs Pilsner
2.5 lbs Munich I
1.25 lbs Carahel
1.25 lbs Carapils

Bohunk Hops:
54.6 IBU
1 oz Sterling (7% AA) -- 90 minutes
1 oz Sterling (7% AA) -- 45 minutes
1 oz Sterling (7% AA)-- fifteen minutes (with a whirlfloc)
Bohunk Yeast:
Wyeast Urquell

Extra Challenger Extra Pale Hops:
57 IBU
(1/2 teaspoon gypsum in boil)
1 oz Challenger (7% AA) -- 60 minutes
1 oz Challenger (7% AA) -- 15 minutes
1 oz Challenger (7% AA) -- 5 minutes
1 oz Challenger (7% AA) -- Dry
Extra Challenger Extra Pale Yeast:
Wyeast Ringwood Ale

2.28.09 -- Gravity on Bohunk measuring 1.036, so I need to wait a little longer before starting diacetyl rest. This batch seems to be taking a little longer, and that could be due the age and generation of the yeast.
3.01.09 -- Gravity measured 1.028. Started dyacetyl rest.

3.10.09 -- Extra Pale racked into secondary. I was not paying as close attention as I should have, and it overflowed a little -- losing about 25% of the dry hop addition. Bohunk also racked into secondary and put in the cooler at 34 degrees.

4.6.09 -- Kegged Extra Pale, but did not check gravity. If it fermented all the way, it should be 1.019. which would make the ABV around 5.8%
4.15.09 -- I have had several glasses of the extra pale, yet I still do not know what to think of it. I do not think I can recommend using Challenger hops in this quantity. The bitterness is harsh, and the hop flavor, what may be called 'floral' tastes like rotten roses and earth in this amount. The beer is clean and dry, but the bitterness is just weird and challenging to say the least.

4.25.09 -- Dumped the remainder of the Extra Challenger out. Not a complete loss since I learned something valuable. Kegged the Oily Bohunk and hooked it up to the gas. I took a little sample and can already tell that this beer is going to be the shit.

5.1.09 -- Sampling Bohunk and it is as good as ever. I seem to have had to sample it three times today already.
5.13.09 -- Maybe not "as good as ever". The hop profile is not a spicy as it has been in the past. I think if I check my records, I used mosty Sterling for my last Bohunk with a little Saaz added at the end. That may be the difference. Also, the Urquell yeast I used for this batch was on its third or fourth generation, so that could have also resulted in mild quality issues. Still a solid beer, but I feel I could have done a little better here.

Yippie I.P.A.

Yippie I.P.A.
O.G. 1.071
72 IBU

6.9% ABV

This is the third incarnation of the recipe which was the first of my brews that I very proud of. Don't get me wrong, up to that point in 2003 I had made plenty of good beer, but this one was a little better. This recipe is a little different than the first two times, but how different, I do not know. I lost the index card on which the original recipe was written, but I know it had European hops rather than the American varieties in this one (Simcoe, Centennial, and Amarillo).

A Promash page for this recipe can be viewed here.

Notes:
1.18.09 -- (Brewday) I intentionally neglected to add all kinds of blogging notes while I was brewing. Promash is helping with that, especially since its settings provide the same deciphering as the equations I have been using. I pitched 2.25 gallons of yeast once the wort cooled to around 70 degrees. That is about all there is to report other than the fact that I am now using my new 50 watt aquarium heater which seems to be keeping up much better.
1.31.09 -- Measured gravity, and it measured 1.018. I added the dry hops and racked to secondary. Since there was extra beer in the primary, I also filled two 16 oz and two 12 oz bottles and added priming sugar. I added .5 teaspoon of cane sugar to the 12 oz bottles, and .75 to the 16 oz bottles.
2.20.09 -- Drinking the first of the bottle conditioned samples, and it is excellent. The hop profile is both citrusy (but not overly so (cat piss)) and earthy. It will be fun to compare these to the beer that is still in the secondary with the dry hop addition. Table sugar also primes beer very nicely.

3.10.09 -- Kegged.

4.22.09 -- The comparison between the dry hopped and the not dry hopped occured this past weekend, and in my opinion the beer without the late addition was a bit better. The beer with the 2 oz dry hops has a more aggresive (naturally) hop profile, and can be metallic tasting at times. I am pretty sure this is because of the Amarillo addition. Overall, the beer is quite good; the color is nice; the malt stands up to the hops, and it is most drinkable.

Rotkapchen Lager

Rotkapchen Lager
O.G. = 1.066
45 IBU

6.7% ABV
Current hop shortages have made recipe planning a little difficult. I was intending on brewing up a batch of Bohemian Pilsener today, but was unable to procure the appropriate hops to do so. My chest freezer is empty now, so that means I have to make some sort of lager to take advantage of the space. I have quite a bit of Mt. Hood hops, so this recipe was made to use those hops in a lager of some sort. The red, which will result from the dash of Carafa, was an afterthought, but makes for a good name.

A Promash page of this recipe can be viewed here.

Malt Bill:

10 lbs Pilsener Malt
2 lbs Munich
.5 lb Carahell
.5 lb Carapils
2 oz Carafa III

Hops:

1 oz US Northern Brewer (7.4% AA) 90 minutes
1 oz Mt. Hood (6% AA) 15 minutes
1 0z Mt. Hood (6% AA) 5 minuites
1 oz Mt. Hood (6% AA) Dry into secondary

Wyeast Urquell 2001 Yeast


I am using a two step mash with a 30 minute rest at 144 degrees and then an hour at 156. Sparging at 170 degrees should take about 55 minutes:


Brewday notes:
Infusion strike went well, and I ended up right at 144 after fifteen minutes / Mash was a little longer +5 minutes or so because I had to wait for sparge water to heat up / After sparging, I am coming up about a half gallon short. I am heating some more water up to 170 to sparge a little more. I need to learn to make more sparge water than I need -- either that or make my original infusion the same 1.3 quarts per gallon that I use with single step mashes /O.G. read at 1.066, up from the expected 1.062 -- could be because it boiled down to about five gallons instead of the 5.5 that are on my sheet.

1.4.09 -- checked gravity and it was down near 1.017. Started diacetyl rest.
1.10.09 -- Racked into secondary yesterday and added one ounce of Mt Hood. Turned the temperature down around 43, and then down to around 37 today. I will eventually get it as low as 34. I heard to turn the temp down slowly. I tasted my sample (which measured 1.015), and the hop flavor is very nice. Also, I had an enormous amount of trub in this one, so I was only able to collect about 4.5 gallons, if that.
2.20.09-- Transferred into the keg and turned on the gas.
3.2.09 -- This one is a hit. It is very crisp, and the Mt. Hood additions make for some nice flavor and aroma. The alcohol content is quite sneaky, though. This will not last long, but I am sure I will make this one again.
2.28.09 -- Thing is that this is my normal Pilsener recipe with just a small color addition and different hops. This is a good way to become familiar with the Mt. Hood hops.

Greymalkin's Juicy Dubbel Dubbel

O.G. = 1.098

81% Attenuated

27.85 IBU

Actually it should be a Quadrupel or a Belgian Dark Strong ale -- a "dubbel dubbel"; 2x2=4. It will be the second beer in a row with an ass name, but how can one resist referencing Shakespeare and Sir Mix-a-Lot at the same time? Yeah, me either. There was a day when I steered clear of any Belgian style beer. I think I had too many that were not well made, and were mainly high-gravity alcohol vehicles that gave me screaming ass headaches. That all changed the day I first tried St. Bernardus' ABT 12 and found myself lost in all that raisiny, pruny, sherry flavored dark fruit goodness. Now I love about anything from St. Bernardus (even though monks don't brew it).

The dark fruit flavors are what I am going for here, so I am choosing to go with the Candi Syrup rather than the nuggets as per the recommendations in this discussion thread. Here is the recipe I have come up with: make it) as well as other Belgian breweries. See a Promash page with all the specifics here.

The Fermentables: weight x potentail x efficiency = extract

15 lbs Pilsner Malt 15 x 36 x .80 = 432
2 lbs Munich Malt 2 x 35 x .80 = 56
.5 lb Caramunich .5 x 34 x .8 = 13.6
.5 lb Special B .5 x 30 x .8 = 12
1.5 lb Dark Candi Syrup 1 x 30 x .8 = 24
.5 lb Cane sugar 1 x 46 x .8 = 36.8
Total extract = 574.4 / 6 gallons (preboil) = Target Gravity (1.o96)

The Hops:
1 oz of EKG (5.6% AA) @ 90 minutes will yield 19.32 IBUs
.5 oz Challenger (7% AA) @ 30 minutes will yield 8.53 IBUs
Total IBUs = 27.85


White Labs Trappist Yeast (WL500)

Mash Notes:
30 minutes in -- This is the first batch I am making using Promash. I added 5.85 gallons of strike water at close to 170 degrees using Promash tto figure strike temperature. It is a little too warm at 30 minutes in (160 instead of the inteded 154). I threw in a couple of ice cubes. I will check again in fifteen minutes or so. I figure the Promash can help me dial in my system a little better in regards to temperatures and what not. I seem to only be losing ten degrees, but usually it is fifteen. The tun did prime with boiling water for quite a bit longer than usual today.

12.31.08 -- Fermentation has been very active in a tub of water with an aquarium heater and a water pump to maintain temperatures. The 25 watt heater seems to be struggling a little. It is set at around 73, but only can maintain about 69. I have a 50 watt heater on the way.
1.2.09 -- White Labs Trappist yeast (WL 500) is a complete animal. It ripped through this 1.098 wort in seven days, leaving it at 1.019. I am sure adding a 2 liter starter had something to do with this. It is still bubbling a little, but that is likely to be the suspended CO2 escaping. I will check the gravity agian in a couple days to see if I should put it into a secondary to settle out. The 50 watt heater came today, and I may not even need it until later. The temps have been pretty consistently between 68 and 7, with one morning after a very cold night that was at 66.
1.09.09 -- Racked into secondary today.
1.18.09 -- Bottled

2.14.09 -- Opened one and it is barely carbonated. I looked at my notes for "22", and found that was the same issue a month after bottling that beer. I will wait another month before trying another. Tastewise, it is pretty close to what I wanted from what I can tell. The dark fruit flavors are certainly there, and there is a very pronounced dry phenolic character. We will see how some dense Beligian carbonation will affect the flavor. I just pray it comes. See you in a month.

2.23.09 -- I got wise and moved all the bottles out of the laundry room to the kitchen and living room where it is five to ten degrees warmer.

3.3.09 -- A "square root day" that only happens a few times every century. . . Had the first Greymalkin that was adequately carbonated, but still has a little way to go in that department. This is going to be a most wonderful beer in a couple more weeks. The dark fruit notes seem to be mostly cherry at this point. I need to see what I hand to say about Chimay since this is their yeast. That review is very remeniscent of this beer.

4.30.09 -- Regardless of what I had to say about "decent carbonation" in the above entry, it turned out not to be entirely true.  The next couple of bottles I opened were flat as hell.  Dejected, I resolved to wait until it began getting warmer in the house before I tried another.  That happened this past weekend, and the results were very encouraging.  Though I do not think this beer will ever have a fluffy full head like those that enjoyed an addition of fresh yeast at bottling, there is now ample head and effervescecnce that lifts the flavors onto the pallate.  In short, it drinks like a beer rather than a wine now, and the dark fruit and malt falvors are so much  more pronounced and enjoyable than before.

Padunk-a-Dunkel

Munich Dunkel
O.G. = 1.050
24 IBU
4.9% ABV

Grain Bill:

11 lbs Munich II
.5 lb Carapils

Hop Schedule:

1 oz Spalt (3.4% AA) -- 60 minutes
1 oz Saaz (3.5% AA) -- 30 minutes

Wyeast Urquell Yeast

Mashing:
I want to use a three step mash with a 20 minute rest at 144, a 60 minute rest at 156, and then a 10 minute mash out at 170. The method I am using can be found here in John Palmer's How to Brew , or in some of my other brewing posts.

Initial Infusion Equation:
Strike Water Temperature Tw = (.2/r)(T2 - T1) + T2

(.2 / .75) (144 - 85 ) + 144 = 159.7 degrees (two gallons)

Mash Infusion Equation:
Wa = (T2 - T1)(.2G + Wm)/(Tw - T2)

(156-144) (2.3+8.6) / (210-156) = amount of boiling water needed to get to 156

(12)(10.9)/54 = 2.4 quarts

(170-156) (2.3+18) / (210-170) = amount of boiling water needed to get to 170

(14) (20.3) /40 = 7.17 quarts / 1.8 quarts

Brewday Reflections: Perhaps starting out with .75 quarts per pound is not quite enough. The run-off got stuck, and thankfully I still had my trusty drilled out five gallon bucket along with my old bottling bucket. It was time to go old school. I just hope I reaped the gravity I was hoping for and the beer will be as clear as if it were run through the manifold in my normal tun. Thankfully I had plenty of homebrew to help me relax and not worry. One should also notice that I did not check the temperature all the way through like I may have in the past. I have found the formula above to be reliable, so I just trusted it.

11.23.08 -- Checked gravity, and it was down around 1.014, which 72% attenuated. I did not expect it to be this far. I am raising the temperature as much as I can in hopes I can get a few more points out of it, eating up diacetyl in the process.

11.28.08 -- Gravity was down to 1.012. Racked into secondary and turned temperature down to 34 degrees.

12.26.08 -- Racked into keg

1.3.09 -- First impressions: Very drinkable! This beer is light bodied and certainly smooth. The bread crust flavors of the Munich malt come through very nicely, though next time I may add a little crystal to make it a tad more complex. I am not complaining though. A great beer that probably wont last long. I will have to be sure to take a picture before it runs out.